So many artists, so many songs, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
PENELOPE ISLES – “I LOVED YOU, ROBERT PATTINSON”
Brighton UK band Penelope Isles picked a good week for this song, what with the real Robert Pattinson starring in The Odyssey and The Invite which are in theaters now. “Oh I can see you knew it all, when I had your posters on my wall,” sings Lily Wolter. The band’s third album is out September 25.
—
JOSALEIGH POLLETT – “BED OF QUIET”
Salt Lake City-based singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett releases their fourth album, If I Let It Quiet, later this month, and the latest single is “Bed of Quiet,” which they say is “an over-thinker’s anthem. A song for the sleepless, and the hours spent playing and replaying scenarios on a loop in your brain where there is no right decision, digging for a yes or a no in a mountain of perhaps. We wanted the production to feel like it belonged in the middle of the night, when you’re not quite yet dreaming, but suspended above your body like a projected film of the last few week’s events you can’t stop watching, playing too loud for sleeping.”
—
CORNERSHOP FT BUBBLEY KAUR – “BOUNCE & SALUTE”
Cornershop have re-teamed with their “Topknot” collaborator Bubbley Kaur on this delightful new single.
—
TYLER BALLGAME – “LIVE IT DOWN”
Rhode Island singer-songwriter Tyler Ballgame released his debut album, For the First Time, Again, earlier this year, and he’s followed it with “Live It Down.” “It’s about cannibalizing your life and relationships as a songwriter and is, in the gentlest of ways, a middle finger of a break-up song,” he says. “However, I do subscribe to John Lennon’s quote when asked about writing diss tracks to McCartney, where he said ‘it’s always about me. I’m attacking myself.’ The track itself was extremely fun to make and includes zither tape loops, and Ryan Pollie playing mic’d up furniture. It’s an excellent showcase of the energy of Amy and Wayne’s special drum and bass connection and is glued together by Ryan and Rado’s unique textural production choices.”
—
DEEP SEA DIVER – “TEARDROP” (MASSIVE ATTACK COVER)
“We have always loved the voice and spirit of Elizabeth Fraser; her collaboration with Massive Attack is one of my all-time favorite songs,” says Deep Sea Diver’s Jessica Dobson. “I was stopped in my tracks as a kid the first time I heard it. It has a magic that is undeniable, and we wanted to live in that magic for a while and to show it to our audience. Doing covers brings us back to connecting us to what we love and as we are writing new songs, we are really trying to purely focus on things that we love and are drawn to, even if mysteriously, like this one. A mysterious beauty.”
—
THE MENZINGERS – “EVERYTHING I EVER SAW”
Here’s the title track of the Menzingers’ eighth album, Everything I Ever Saw, which arrives this Friday. “The album’s about living in the present, especially during life’s big moments,” guitarist and vocalist Greg Barnett told Rolling Stone. “As musicians in a touring band, we’re constantly looking towards the next thing. I felt like I had been living my life like that for a very long time. Then Everything I Ever Saw just clicked. It tied in with all the other songs about being here in the moment and being there for the people that need you. The answer was right in front of us all along. People have described us as a very nostalgic band. It’s funny because I never saw it that way, it was more so about looking at the past for the answers to the things that you’re trying to understand now. That’s how I feel like our songwriting has always gone. The chorus, ‘I don’t want to relive, I just want to remember everything I ever saw’ sums that bit up. I want to remember all of this and use it in the future to appreciate my life.”
—
CRIMINAL INSTINCT – IS IT RAINING AT YOUR HOUSE?
Atlanta hardcore band Criminal Instinct released a bone-rattling new EP, Is It Raining at Your House?, today via Closed Casket Activities.
—
JOHN VANDERSLICE – “AQUAMARINE”
John Vanderslice will release new album FOCUS on August 28 and he made it with James Riotto and John’s wife Maria who wrote the lyrics.
—
CHICO – “CAN’T BE”
“This song is about how it feels like there’s no winning the fight between your survival and happiness,” Chico drummer Tony Rangel says of the new single off their upcoming self-titled debut album. “You can’t help what kind of life you’re born into, but you can try your best to turn it into something you’re proud of. For some people, dreams and aspirations can feel like luxuries; while for others, there exists no other reality but to do what you want without worrying about survival. Some people are free to make choices that could cost everything to someone less fortunate. They can tell me I’m free, but it doesn’t always feel like it.”
—
BEABADOOBEE – “SWITCHBLADE”
beabadoobee has given us another preview of her fifth album, Pylon, with “Switchblade.” “Are u team start the fight, or team take the flight?” she asks.
—
JAKE XERXES FUSSELL – “ROCK ISLAND LINE”
Jake Xerxes Fussell has announced new album The Old Beloved Path which will be out September 18 via Fat Possum. “The song struck me as very beautiful, but just singing the verses wasn’t working for me. I couldn’t relate”, Fussell says “Rock Island Line” which is a rework of a classic American folk song. “So, I wound up putting it together with an old English nursery rhyme that I had been kicking around. ‘Wire, briar, limberlock / How many geese is in our flock?’ and ‘If you want to ride you got to ride it like you’re flyin, get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.’ Marrying those two things, I felt like something worked, it felt like a song to me.”
—
COLD GAWD – “GREASE”
Southern California shoegazers Cold Gawd announced a new EP, Glory2, due out August 28 via Dais Records, and shared the first single, “Grease.”
—
ROY MONTGOMERY & MARTHA SKYE MURPHY – “AT DAWN”
Martha Skye Murphy describes Nebular, her collaboration with New Zealand guitarist Roy Montgomery, “a kind of sonic sign language.” Here’s a taste of their ethereal alchemy.
—
JULIA JACKLIN – “I WISH”
Julia Jacklin has given us another preview of her new album The Gem with the lushly harmonied “I Wish,” featuring Australian folk duo The Maes.
—
OK COWGIRL – “CRUISE THE TOWN”
Brooklyn’s Ok Cowgirl will release new album Rhinestone Cowgirl on August 21. The album was produced by Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman) and here’s the latest fuzzy, twangy single. “This is the only song on the record that I co-wrote,” says bandleader Leah Lavigne. “I wrote the lyrics and melody around a guitar riff that [guitarist John Miller] came up with. To me, that riff felt like driving around with the ‘heat turned on and the windows down.’ One of my simple pleasures in life. The lyrics ended up being largely about my relationship to control. I can make myself absolutely miserable white-knuckling every aspect of my life, and I’ve been working on loosening my grip and going a little easier on myself.”
—
LILY SEABIRD – “PORTAL TO THE PAST”
“Trying to describe what inspires my writing is hard to figure sometimes,” Lily Seabird says. “A lot of these songs on this record wrestle with time and memory, our perception as it rolls forward, as the past gets further away and the future rolls out infinitely ahead of us. The light as it fades. This song came from a longer poem I wrote after waking from a vivid dream on a friend’s porch in New Orleans. I think writing it in New Orleans brought a special energy to it. The energy is really intense there. Dwelling too much can sometimes create what feels like a portal and bring you right back to where you once were, that’s the portal to the past.” It’s from her new album Lightspheres on Their Way.
—
DEAD MEADOW – “LOST TO LIGHT”
Dead Meadow release Foundlings, a compilation of rarities, on July 31. Check out “Lost to Light.”
—
LIDO PIMIENTA – “MAREA”
Lido Pimienta’s new album Caribenya is out this Friday, and she’s given us a final early taste with “Marea.” She says it’s “A song about Caribbean youth existing and intentionally claiming their space and their right to joy in spite of the parasite demons called gentrification, settler colonialism, displacement, land theft and sexual exploitation,” as well as “A cynical love song for the end of times” and “In dance and sublime Caribbean beauty we resist.”
—
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – “EASY ST” FT NIKKI LANE
It’s QOTSA’s first new music in three years.
—
TWIN TEMPLE “DOOMED LOVERS”
Satan-loving throwback rock n’ roll duo Twin Temple have shared the gorgeous, string-drenched title track — think Roy Orbison or Patsy Cline — from their upcoming album Doomed Lovers.
—
JESS WILLIAMSON – “GOODBYE TO ALL THAT”
Inspired by Joan Didion, this is the first single from Jess Williamson’s new album.
—
Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive